Named the "Best Blog" by Parent & Child Magazine, this popular mom blog chronicles the wonderful mundaneness of a Philadelphia stay-at-home mom's life with four small children including twins in episodic form. Recurrent topics include adoption, multiples, Fifth Disease, Crohn's Disease and pregnancy, and academia.

June 8, 2010

Dumpster Diving

On Friday afternoon, I fell into the dumpster behind Pier 1 Imports. The cause of the mishap was a delicious cardboard box in mint condition that was just out of reach.

Just as I was violating the limits of my flexibility, a truck full of rowdy teenage boys drove by the dumpster. The driver honked his horn and I tumbled into a mound of empty hurricane lamp boxes.

Things I learned from this experience:

* Dumpsters are not as confining as I imagined them to be. Mine, in fact, was quite spacious and because it was a cardboard-only container, it wasn't at all stinky.

* It took longer than I thought to get out of the dumpster. The walls are slippery little buggers.

* Children who witness their mother fall into a dumpster will either think she is super cool or a super big idiot. Despite my attempt to convince them that I belonged in the first category, they unanimously voted me into the second.

61 comments

Old Navy has amazing boxes-not too big or too small and brand new. Plus, they don't mark them up with tons of text. Find out what day of the week they get shipments and go early. Check craigslist too, lots of people list their boxes for free after they unpack :) Good luck!

I used to work at Barnes & Noble. I have moved about 12 times since then and every time I have climbed into their dumpster to get their boxes-Book boxes are wonderful!!! Super sturdy! But your box is a great find also:)

Ruth was definitely worth the dumpster-dive! It looks like she could hold so much! But seriously, the grocery store always has boxes. Just ask the produce guy if they can hold some aside. They did it all the time for me in college - we would just go pick them up in the evening or first thing in the morning (depending on when they got their shipments in).

Ruth is very happy to be saved! But I have to agree with Deanna, I too have a knack for packing overweight boxes that need to be forklifted onto the truck... Be sure Ruth is delegated to hold stuffed animals! And your husband should be proud that you are getting a head start on the packing!

Liquor Store. The boxes are perfect for glasses since they have dividers for the bottles. Makes packing the kitchen quick.

I totally would have dived in for Ruth.

My husband gives me a hard time about picking up sod from the road. When we had removed a chunk of lawn during some construction my husband was fighting weeds and seed. I happened to be tooling down the road and what do my glorious surprise do I see? Two squares of sod that must have fell off a truck fairly recently. I scooped them up and they worked great.

Next time your kids watch you dumpster dive, take a $20 out of your purse, put it into your pocket and emerge from the center of the dumpster victoriously waving the $20 as a victory banner. Then even your most doubting children will consider you a very intelligent superhero and might be willing to jump in for the chance to find some moolah.

This post totally made my day! Ruth was definately worth jumping in for. I too think your life should be made into a tv show. It would rival Seinfeld for sure. And I would have to disagree with Jen. If you jumped out of a dumpster waving money, I think your kids would be jumping in every dumpster they see. ;)

If you do decide to buy boxes (although, I think all the previous comments have great ideas for free ones) - Home Depot sells moving boxes. We just moved and bought our boxes there (we just weren't motivated enough to round up free ones like we've done in the past). They were the best price we could find and they worked out great for us. Good luck with it all.

Can never pass up a good box. One lady at dance bought her kids Subway and then for some reason put her cell phone in the Subway bag and chucked it into the dumpster behind the building, accidentally. She came back a couple of days later and climb into the dumpster to get it, luckily it was winter and didn't smell too badly. She did it in her skirt and heels though. Love the over 30 dumpster divin' mommas.

Love dumpster diving for boxes. My husband went to this little Vietnamese restaurant and they gave him a ton of boxes- they were relatively small (easy to carry) and all the same size- so I didn't have to break out my crazy Tetris skills loading up the moving van! Good luck!

This post has brought back way to many painful memories for me.... having worked in Produce in Sobeys I saved all the apple boxes people asked me for and hauling them out to their car mourning the fact that they were depriving me of the act of dumping these boxes in the dumpster and gleefully pressing that little red button to squish them all together!! Then I married someone who had wanderlust and we moved EVERY single year of our 11 year marriage... after 2 years of dumpster diving, I learned to save all the boxes from every move and they are all pre-labeled!! Cherish Ruth... she will come in handy!!

FABULOUS! I can hear my fifth grade students chanting, "Trash picker!" and I can see the mortified looks on your children's faces - priceless. BTW, grocery stores are always willing to give you boxes from their shipments. You just need to call and ask them to hold them for you. The bonus is that you get many different sizes and types of boxes.

Ruth, lol. Our next door neighbors are divorcing and the husband has recently moved out with his new lady friend. We don't really know them (they rent and we are friends of the owners), now she's getting ready to vacate as well and she's had a dumpster delivered to her driveway. My husband keeps threatening to go over and dumpster dive because he's convinced that she's throwing out all of her husband's things. Probably true, sad but true.

I love a good solid box with a good lid. Fruit boxes are great for that. Also a good box especially new appliance boxes are the best forts for kids to play in. There's nothing better than a good box. My husband thinks I'm a little weird but he just doesn't understand.......

That is HILARIOUS!! I'm sorry. :) If you still need boxes, they usually have a bin of used ones in the Uhaul store, all shapes and sizes, in great condition. Alisha just got a bunch of brand new heavy duty ones from the dumpster outside the Fedex place... if you are up for more dumpster diving. :) Please let me know if you need some more- I would love to help!

Most department stores and even small local chain stores will save boxes for you on their truck days... all you have to do is contact the store manager, explain you are moving and in need of boxes, and usually they will tell you a day that is convienant to pick up oodles and oodles of boxes for FREE! If you are using a moving company and signed a tentative contract with them, they will give you free used packing paper and boxes (most of them out there anyway). I have moved 5 times in the last 7 years with little assistance on each and every move. We are a family of 6 going on 7 so I call you falling in the dumpster "cool"!

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